>>the more I think this must be some sort of setup or con act<<
If there's one thing I've found to be absolutely true its that don't explain anything away by skill that can also be easily explained by stupidity.
Ah, a corollary of one of my many "Laws of Government Work":
#15 - Never attribute to malice, that which can just as easily be explained by incompetence.
SO true. I wish I had a penny for every hour I overthunk something and its cause turned out to be sheer dumb luck or a by a sheer dumb @ss.
However that overthinking makes for good practice for the real tough cases.